Intentions to Marry, 1887

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840399, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 265

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1887

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
153	5 January 1887	Robert Campbell Louisa Scrimgeour	Robert Campbell Louisa Scoringi 💍 1887/2118	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	20 22	Oamaru Sandietown	11 years 4 years	Dwelling House of Francis Scrimgeour	87/580		5 January 1887	Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian
154	6 January 1887	Thomas Joseph Mary Kerr	Thomas Joseph Burns Mary Kenny 💍 1887/2119 Thomas Greer Mary Parris 💍 1888/771 Thomas Burnett Mary Harris 💍 1888/788	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 20	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church	87/581		11 January 1887	James Foley, Roman Catholic
155	6 January 1887	Frederick Fielding Mary Davie	Frederick Fielding Mary Davies 💍 1887/2120	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 27	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	9 years 9 years	Dwelling House of Agnes Gutherie, Pleasant Point	87/582		6 January 1887	Wm. White, Presbyterian
156	10 January 1887	Alexander Macpherson Emma Gray	Alexander Macpherson Emma Gray 💍 1887/2121	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	31 23	Barrara Oamaru	10 years 4 years	Grosvenor Hotel	87/583		10 January 1887	Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian
157	24 January 1887	William Richard Mary Shiloh	William Richards Mary Hazlitt 💍 1887/2122 William Gardiner Mary Smith 💍 1887/600 William Dickson Mary Scoble 💍 1887/178	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 30	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 8 years	Presbyterian Manse	87/584		24 January 1887	Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian
158	24 January 1887	Joshua Hether Edith Hether	Joshua Fletcher Edith Acton 💍 1887/2100	Bachelor Spinster	Station Overseer	26 21	Levels Station Pleasant Point	1½ years 2½ years	St. Mary's English Church	87/585		24 January 1887	H. W. Harper, Church of England
159	31 January 1887	John Hether Edith Hether		Bachelor Spinster	Station Overseer	26 21	Levels Station Pleasant Point	1½ years 2½ years	Registrar of Marriages Office, Oamaru	87/585		31 January 1887	Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
160	3 February 1887	James Hick Ellen Rushton	James Webb Ellen Ruxton 💍 1887/2101 James Hart Ellen Kruse 💍 1888/46	Widower Spinster	Labourer	37 26	St. Andrews Oamaru	1½ years 3 years	St. Mary's English Church	87/586		3 February 1887	Wm. J. C. Nister, Church of England
161	10 February 1887	Robert Dunn Elizabeth Fanny Dunn	Robert Donn Elizabeth Fanny Dunn 💍 1887/2102	Bachelor Spinster	Store Carter	21 18	Oamaru Sandietown	2½ years 1½ years	Dwelling House of John Dunn	87/587	John Dunn, Father	10 February 1887	C. W. Fairclough, Wesleyan

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).